wise craft

i keep making felted rocks

Since we all need to be super diligent about washing our hands right now, it occurred to me, after having my hands immersed in warm soapy water for most of the afternoon yesterday, that maybe we, as a people, should just felt some wool rocks together.

Just a thought.

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I did a post today about the puzzle some of you may have seen, over on the Boomerang! journal.

grilling vegetables

As an adult, probably one of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of super fresh, gorgeous vegetables. Farmers markets literally make the hair on the back of my neck stand up in excitement, and I love opening the kitchen pantry and fridge to see all those beautiful bright colors ready to eat.

We are big grillers here at my house. In my humble opinion, everything tastes better grilled (especially fruit), and its this time of year when grilled vegetables start showing up in literally everything I cook. I do not even begin to think that I am an expert on grilling vegetables, but I wanted to talk about them because of how good and familiar they are to me. Last night, I thought the cupboards were bare and that there was an emergency trip to the market in my future. When l spotted several vegetables that had never made their way onto the table that week, I started up the grill. They were perhaps not at the tippy top peak of their freshness, but grilling takes care of that. Zucchini, shallots, red bell peppers, and eggplant...

I brushed a little olive oil on each side, seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper, then put them the grill (fully pre-heated on high, turned down slightly when I put on the veggies). I have friends who use those special wire grill pans that hold the veggies in it as they grill, but I never have and have never had a problem (cut the pieces large enough so they don't fall through the grill). A few minutes on each side, and you're done. (I prefer to grill the shallots whole, to a dark char on the outside, making them soft and sweet on the inside.)

I found some slivered almonds, which I lightly toasted, then made a salad with radishes and grape tomatoes (no cheese, boo!). The grilled vegetables that were left over will show up wraps, sandwiches, and salads we'll eat over the next few days.

And then it will be time to grill again.

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Oh, and here are the winners of the book giveaway:

Of the Cotton, Wool, Linen book-

Sarah said...

I've just started sewing and I love the idea of trying something from these books with linen.

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Alyssa said...

I'd love to own either of these!

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Of the Patchwork book-

AngieK said...

Ooooh, I just love Japanese craft books!

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Bean said...

yes, please!

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If we have not already exchanged emails, please send me your mailing address at wisecraftblog@gmail.com so you can get your book. Thanks so much to everyone who played along. I really wish everybody could get a book!

'round here

The sunlight is changing our daily living space inside as well as outside. Peter and I have been fantasy shopping for a house (an emphasis on fantasy, because, really, who are we kidding??), but truth be told, things are feeling kind of nice around here these days. The yard is getting weeded and cleaned, and I'm doing my usual knick-knack-move-around the house this week- which is what I do when I don't know what to do, but want to do something creative (do you follow? am I alone in doing this?). I feel like I'm close to bursting with new ideas for things to sew and knit and make, but knowing it can't happen all at once, I'm trying to figure out how to pace myself, or bottle up this incredible enthusiasm and give myself a little dab behind the ears every few days.  Because, then, I figure, it actually stands a chance of happening.

A good place to start...a little water and wool therapy this morning. Felted rocks. Not quite dry, and I have more to make. So fun to make.

Thanks for all the comments on the last post (whoa!).  4 winners will be announced in the next post.

*I wanted to add that those terrariums in the first shot (or our family variation with what we had here at the house, those are quirky little glass vases we found in the basement) were made a few weeks ago, around the same time the Stephanie posted about terrariums on 3191. Make these with your kids, they are so easy and fun, made even more exciting when they actually thrive and grow!

giveaway

Linen Wool Cotton : 25 Simple Projects to Sew with Natural Fabrics

Patchwork Style : 35 Simple Projects for a Cozy & Colorful Life

These two books are part of the MakeGoodBooks series and I have two copies of each to give away here in this space. Both are really wonderful, fully translated from their original Japanese versions into English. I owe at least a year's worth of creative energy to the Japanese version of Patchwork Style.

Just leave a comment, and I'll pick 4 winners on Monday. Comments are closed, thanks so much. Have a great weekend! More making stuff for the treehouse here. And I promise to be around this space a little more next week.

the treehouse appreciation society

Happy Earth Day to you!

The weekend was gorgeous here in Seattle (seems to be over for the moment, hope everyone enjoyed). A big part of it for us was spent out in the backyard, readying it for warmer weather. The official Treehouse Appreciation Society began as a result of our weekend. (The society being we (you, anybody) wise crafters who craft and make things for treehouse, club house, outdoor fun, etc.) The more we cleaned up the play structure, the more excited we got, thinking of the possibilities of hanging out and playing there again this summer. At some point on Saturday, our thoughts turned to camp and treehouse-related crafts (as all cleaning sessions with mom usually do). Hence, the society...

We have always called this structure a treehouse, but its actually quite firmly on the ground. It does, however, have a great "lookout" on the top floor. Sitting up there gives you a bird's eye view of our backyard and of the trees around us, that's the treehouse part. Our little house in the trees. (I've spent some me time up there myself.)

 

There is a tiny clubhouse below, just behind the climbing wall, with a door, and according to 7 and 10 year olds, that's where the magic happens. I donated an old doormat for the threshold, and Emma planted a pot of geraniums-

There were requests made by the kids for some sort of seating inside, and a table. That sent me off on a tangent I will explain in another post. In the spirit of using only what we have around the house, I gave them a plastic storage bin with a well fitting lid to put inside the clubhouse, that can be used for temporary seating. It was quickly filled with board games, binoculars, art supplies, and bird books. Perfect. An old camp table with a piece of oil cloth over it makes a table just the right size. And, what's a clubhouse without curtains? Up went a set sewn from a yard of fabric I had and a curtain rod I found in the basement.

Its good...its really really good in there.

 

These little flower bud vials, left over from a floral arrangement my friend made, proved to be the real hit of the afternoon. There were flower petals to be crushed! Potions to be mixed! The birdbath was a handy pot-

 

I love my kid's "can do" attitude, and am always happy when they don't automatically think something needs to be purchased in order to make or finish the ideea they have in their mind. This is where their impatience pays off- they don't have the time to wait for a grown up to take them to buy what they need (plus it takes a lot of energy and persistence to convince them to do it in the first place). So, by default, the imagination takes over and they simply make it happen. 

And I apologize to the neighbors in advance for how many times Emma has played this song in the treehouse. I'm really thinking twice about putting sound of any kind out there.

news

 

Good morning! A few things to share-

- I created a paper flower Mother's Day project for the folks at Parents magazine for the May 09 issue, trickling out to newsstands now (just as an aside, I love working with these guys!). These flowers are simple, fun, and pretty to do with kids (Emma and I had a whole afternoon of fun making these as I was developing this project). A bouquet of these (maybe with a perfume-scented magazine strip) would be something I know I would love for Mother's Day (hint). My personal recommendation is to recycle JCrew catalogs for these. Since they are out of my price range these days, its a fun way to enjoy the colors!

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- The new Boomerang website is up! Go have a look! We have been working behind the scenes for a few months now, creating a new look and feel for Boomerang and we are so proud of how its coming together. As you may know from reading this space, Boomerang has been a valuable piece of learning and enjoyment for my kids long before I knew Dave Strohm (the creator), so I'm quite passionate about this project, as a consumer and as a brand consultant.  The graphics you see on the site were designed by Story Trading (props to my brilliant husband for his hand drawing, and to Shawn, for the current issue's imagery on the homepage), the content is still all Dave and his crew in the Boomerang studios. We are working on the final element~ adding some sample audio clips~ to the site today. After that, we will continue to add in some fun things for our young Boomerang fans who visit our space. In the meantime, check our and join our facebook page, where we will keep you update on some exciting things we have in the pipeline.

To help celebrate our website, Eren and Stefani are having a Boomerang giveaway over at their new collaborative blog, The Magnifying Glass, an online nature journal for kids. I bookmarked The Magnifying Glass as soon as I saw it, ts full of all kinds of ideas for getting our kids (and ourselves) outside. Something we all need to do more of.

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- I am excited to be starting a new collaboration with nonchalantmom, as a contributing author on their blog. Founded by Carina Schott, pictured above from a Domino Magazine spread, an extensive background in the fashion industry, working with companies such as The Gap, Baby Gap, Banana Republic, and Espret, she created nonchalantmom as a well-designed, modern, hip, very cool online space for moms and their kids. I will be posting there on a continued basis about living a creative life with kids, and have put an easy-to-find button over on my left sidebar <---. Here's a little background from Carina-

"I know my story will sound cliché, but the idea behind “Nonchalant Mom” is anything but commonplace. When we had our son Sander in 2002 and we decided it was time to move so we packed up and moved ourselves from Manhattan to Rhode Island. I found myself with a lot of energy, 20 years experience in the fashion industry behind me, and no one with whom to share my love for natural living to raise my son. I also found it hard to network and get information on raising my son as naturally as possible. We still go all the way back to New York just to see our pediatrician, Dr. Michel Cohen, because his approach is laid back, and he let us bring up Sander according to our own intuition (although he laughed every time we told him that Sander was still sleeping with us).

Nonchalant Mom was born from a need to find great toys, clothes and information on natural parenting, all in one place. It wasn’t on the internet yet and I knew I could bring these ideals together, and make it FUN! I also wanted to meet other parents that enjoy these things, and create a community of “natural parents” so I don’t feel so alone. I know you are all out there, so lets get together!"

Nonchalantmom has posted  a little interview I did with them over at their blog today. (correction: its not up yet, I'll let you know when it is) edited to say its up!

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On the homefront here, the weather turned gorgeous here in Seattle over the weekend, and we spent every minute we could outside. I spent a lot of time getting the kid's outdoor spaces ready for the warmer days ahead...putting air in delated soccer balls, repairing or getting rid of toys that weren't working...but the biggest project was getting our play structure/clubhouse/treehouse ready for some serious meeting time. The process of working on the cleanup inspired a whole string of crafts (I attribute this energy burst to some outdoor time and Vitamin D as well). I wanted to share these here on the blog, and have made a new category, The Treehouse Appreciation Society. You will see our society projects popping up in the next few weeks (many are still in the works).

color and pattern

Now that a new quilt for Emma is done, and a proper "quilt rest" has followed, next comes a quilt for Ian's bed. I've been wanting to make this Marquee pattern (above), from the FunQuilts Studio book The Modern Quilt Workshop, since the book came out in 2005, and when I started trying to gather ideas a few months ago, the idea that this pattern still inspires me convinced me this is one I'll go with next. The effect of the tiny strips of color, surrounding the "ground" fabric feels traditional and modern to me, which I really like. Its described in the book as the strips of color being like flashing lights in Times Square. I can see that. Its a relatively easy pattern for me, which will be a nice change after the curved templates for the Single Girl. This pattern uses no templates, just plenty of rotary cutting strips and blocks, and I really like projects that involve nothing more than pretty fabric, a good sharp rotary cutting blade, and This American Life.

I've shared glimpses of Ian's room before...orange walls (which he LOVES, by the way, I, myself probably never get a wink of sleep)...lots of Lego's and toy cars...a shark's tooth necklace...a log...and his Goodnight Moon quilt, which he's used faithfully since the day I finished it. The idea behind making a quilt for his bed when he already has one is partly to have a seasonal change, something lighter than the green in the quilt he uses now, and partly because that's what I like to do (and the family no longer asks why). Seattle is chilly at night right up until mid to late summer, when we get a brief heatwave that everyone complains about (including me) but is actually thankful for, so mid-weight quilts are an almost constant layer here. Plus I love the color and pattern challenge this quilt pattern presents for me. The quilting fabric market seems heavily bent towards large-scale, feminine prints these days, which is lovely for almost anything I would sew that would not end up in Ian's room. I've had to look long and hard for what I liked that fit what I was looking for. The ground fabric in the photograph above has a subtle, tiny, all-over pattern that feels like a solid. That's kind of what I'm looking for in the tiny pattern strips. Its been tough. I ordered several patterns from here (great sale prices on Katie Jump Rope and others there, if you're interested) When they came in the mail yesterday I was so happy to see some good harmonious pattern play going on and that I didn't just order random prints that didn't make sense together.

Jennifer and Erin, now you may get a better idea of what I was trying to explain to you both. The ground will be Kona cotton gray (I can never remember exactly which gray, but a light one). There are a few more prints I plan to use that are not pictured here, but this sort of gives the idea I was going for around the gray. Small scale prints, some white, a little red and brown thrown in (and some old, solid green corduroy JCrew pj pants of mine that I'm donating to the project). I laught at the act of completely overthinking all of this type of thing, then realizing that it always seems to work in the end, whatever was chosen. I feel like I can move on. What do you guys think?

And that little guy?? right up there?? looking at the doggie in the rhinestone collar?

He's quite the marquee himself.

log lady

When I got Betz's new book, Sewing Green, in the mail last week, I immediately knew which of the projects would be my first, the Woodland Draft Buster. You see, even though bright shiny new windows were put in at our house years ago, we have drafts, plenty of them. And this project was so genius and cute, I had to do it. And I knew just where I would put it, in Ian's window.

Ian's room is, naturally, all-boy, but this totally works for a little window he has along one wall.  It doesn't open, graciously provides a little extra light during these cloudy Seattle days, and is, as I said, drafty.

Betz's instructions are super easy to follow, and I was able to get these sewn up in a couple of hours. Not a single snag in the instructions. (I can't tell you how unnerved I get when I actually do take the time to go by pattern instructions, step by step, only to find be a problem with measurements, sequencing, or realize too late that something was left out. Not here.) Its embarrassing how much satisfaction I got out of sewing that woodgrain pattern. I used button/carpet thread to do that, which is thicker and quite a bit more coarse than regular machine thread (I kept regular thread in the bobbin). My machine wasn't totally happy about that thick thread, but I love how it shows up. And please notice my fungi...

My kids have remarked that the advantage to this draft buster being a log is that it doubles as a stuffy too, but I told them if that's the case, that I should really be using their mass collection of stuffys for draft busters. I'm just sayin...

This book has been out on the worktable since I got it, mainly because its just so pretty! I love that green on the cover, and there are some lovely and inspiring photos throughout. I know Betz is on a big blog (and physical) tour this week, so more than likely you're going to be seeing some other projects popping up from this book. For me, I see some of the recycled sweater slippers in my future (my kids would love those), and I am definitely making the sandwich wrap for the kid's lunches (instructions for this are available over at Craftzine blog) . The entire book is all about making lovely, beautiful things out of left-overs, cast-offs, and otherwise trash, which is so timely for so many of us. Well done Betz.

I hope you guys are having a great week. We're busy, as usual, but happy to be back into our routine. I am trying to find time to sneak some things into my etsy shop in the next month or so. I've got a ton of ideas, it all just boils down to time. As of last night I am now hyperfocused on this lovely quilt pattern after seeing Swin Notes blocks and am excited to try paper piecing.

good stuff

I got a surprise in the mail from Melissa, that vase and those little lambs up there. I just adore them, and adore the fact that with busy hands and little smiles needing her attention so much these days, she still manages to get a package in the mail (something I don't seem to be able to do).

Some more good stuff-

I listened to Jonathan Goldstein of Wiretap interviewed on our local NPR station this morning. I like this man, dry humor gets me every time.

Apples and peanut butter

the smell of a clean house

remembering Bench Monday for once-

 

Listening to old 80's girl bands like this and this with Emma.

New season! The kids and I pass many of these boats when we cross the Ballard Bridge in Seattle, its cool to see them there.

I am starting a new quilt, this time for Ian's bed. Having a really hard time finding good fabrics with no flowers or swirly, flower-like things. I keep thinking they are out there, and I just gotta find them, but its not been easy. That kid even thinks he sees something floral on a quilt for his bed, and it'll be a deal breaker for sure. Wish me luck.

Tomorrow, I'll explain why Peter called me the log lady all weekend if anyone's interested. All good stuff!

Happy Easter to you

Emma made palm crosses for Palm Sunday (last Sunday) with her Mamere (their grandmother).

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates!